


bearing within him the image of a cathedral

by colazitron



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Extended Scene, Fluff, M/M, Sort Of, really when i say fluff i mean this is unforgiveably sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 09:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19270843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colazitron/pseuds/colazitron
Summary: Amira gives Matteo back the tiara. Which is a good thing, since David would have liked to see him in it.





	bearing within him the image of a cathedral

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smallbump](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallbump/gifts).



> **A/N:** Crowns are my aesthetic and Druck just tempted me too much with that clip, and then a friend mentioned it as well, so here we are.

Matteo's slumped over one of the high tables outside, the night air cool and calming on his hot cheeks. He undoes another two buttons to get a little more of it - not like anyone's gonna see in the dark, especially with how he's lying halfway on top of the table - and contemplates rolling his sleeves up. David's left to pee and Matteo wonders how much longer they're gonna stay. The lull is making him realise he's a little tired and the thought of departing on their last-minute road trip tomorrow makes him think they probably should get some sleep in. But he's having fun, and he feels good and if David wants to stay, they'll stay.

"You're already falling asleep?"

Amira's voice startles him out of his musings and he lifts his head slowly to look at her. She's grinning down at him, eyes twinkling easily as much as that glittery thing on her forehead and--

"You already lost the crown?"

Amira grins at him and lifts her hands from below the table, one of them propping her up on its surface, the other one waving the tiny crown around.

"It's a tiara and it's right here," she says.

Matteo snorts in amusement.

"Tiara, then," he says. "You didn't want to wear it either?"

Amira shrugs.

"It was fun, and it did suit me exceptionally well."

Matteo laughs.

"But?" he asks.

Amira looks down at it with a strange little expression on, twirling it around between her fingers.

"But you won it," she finally says. "It's yours."

Matteo rolls his eyes.

"I know you're perfect and all, but in case it wasn't clear: it was meant to be a gift. You don't have to give it back."

The look on Amira's face slides into something more gentle, and a little challenging. That 'this fear inside you is just power that wants to get out' type look she gets before her unnervingly on point pep talks.

"But you won it," she repeats.

Matteo pushes up onto his elbows a little to be able to look her in the eyes better.

"You know as well as I do that this is just some dumb sort of 'omg it's so cute with two boys like that' bullshit. It hasn't even been a month since they all whispered about David like he's just a particularly juicy piece of gossip. And now they're putting us on a stage for some more entertainment."

He huffs an angry breath, still a little knot of tightness in his chest every time he remembers standing at the bottom of that staircase, watching David shrink in on himself while the pointing and whispering around them got louder. He can't fully shake the way his heart races at the thought yet and for all of his bravado and the openness he displays around their friends, he doesn't think David has shaken it either. It's not fair they get to just put a sash around him and cheer like that'll be enough to patch over the panic and the hurt David suffered.

Amira shrugs.

"You two still deserve it. You've gone through more shit in the last month than most couples do in a year. And you're very good together. Like, I don't know. Inspirational, or something," she says, looking away to the side and mumbling a little towards the end.

If it weren't for how funny Matteo thinks it is when Amira struggles with saying something nice, he'd probably be blushing at the compliments, but as it is he just reaches out and pokes her in the forehead.

"If you keep being nice to me, I'm gonna get used to it," he teases.

Amira bats his hand away and shoots him an unimpressed look. Then she holds out the tiara to him. "Anyway, Abiball Couple or not, you have earned this. You dragged yourself out of a really deep pit and you came out on top. Accept your crown, Matteo."

She doesn't even falter this time, and Matteo drops her gaze, shifting on his feet. He bites his lip, trying not to think of those days when it doesn't really feel like he's left that pit at all and finally chances looking back up at her.

"Thanks. You helped a lot," he says and then tries on a winning smile and gestures at the tiara. "So you can keep that."

Amira laughs and plucks the hat off his head. He tries batting her hands away when she reaches to set the tiara on his hair instead, but his attempt is half-hearted at best. It's _Amira_ , it's not like he can just wrestle her for it. So he sighs deeply and lets her adjust it to her liking, fussing with his hair.

"There," she finally says and takes a step back, giving him a critical once over and nodding to herself. "Now let me take a picture."

She reaches for her phone and Matteo snatches his hat off the table, cramming it back onto his head over the damn crown.

"Absolutely not," he says. "I'm not giving you any more blackmail material; I know your game, Mahmood."

She laughs and shrugs, her face the picture of innocence, like she wasn't thinking of that at all.

"You're not that ugly," she teases. "I mean, it looked better on me of course, but it suits you. I get what David sees in you, if you're into all that."

She gestures at him vaguely in a way that startles a laugh out of him. Trust Amira to make a compliment sound like an insult.

"We can't all be queens," he grins at her.

She scoffs. "Well not with that attitude."

“What attitude?” David asks, slipping an arm around Matteo’s back and pressing close to his side, his head hooked over Matteo’s shoulder. Matteo turns his head, just to look at him again, and David gives him a smile and a kiss on the mouth.

“Your boyfriend’s,” Amira says with a grin.

“Ah,” David says, like he understands and agrees, so Matteo elbows him in the stomach. Gently.

“Fuck off.”

David laughs and wraps his arm around Matteo more tightly, pulling him back against his chest.

“I want to go dance,” he says, nuzzling his nose along the side of Matteo’s neck.

Matteo tries to suppress a shiver at the touch, mindful of their audience even if David doesn’t seem to care.

“With me or with Leonie?” he teases.

David wraps both arms around Matteo’s waist and squeezes him so tightly Matteo considers asking him to back off for half a moment.

“With you,” he whines into the back of Matteo’s neck, peppering the sweat-cool skin there with kisses. Matteo feels his eyelids slip down to half-mast and his skin break out in goose pimples.

“Okay,” he says, ignoring Amira’s grin at the breathy tone of his voice. “We’ll go dance and then we’ll go home, alright?”

David makes a grumpy noise that has Matteo grinning and rolling his eyes up at the night sky.

“We’re going on a trip tomorrow, remember? Wouldn’t want you to be too hungover for that,” he coaxes.

David perks up immediately.

“Fuck, yes. It’s going to be so awesome.”

“Not if you get car sick,” Matteo points out.

David scoffs behind him, but detaches himself from Matteo’s back and laces their fingers together instead, stepping up next to him.

“I don’t get car sick,” he proclaims.

Amira’s biting down on her lips to keep her grin in check, but Matteo doesn’t bother, letting David see the full extent of his amusement. David pouts at him. It’s absolutely fucking precious and means Matteo _has_ to lean forward to kiss him. Those are the rules.

“Let’s go dance,” he says when he pulls back.

David grins at him. “Yes, let’s.”

“Are you coming inside with us?” Matteo turns to Amira to ask.

She waves them off.

“In a bit,” she says and then nods over at something behind Matteo’s shoulder. Her brothers, it turns out when Matteo cranes his neck to look. “Gotta make sure those two don’t embarrass me too much.”

Matteo grins at her, and David tugs on his arm, already two steps away.

“Alright, see you later!” Matteo says and holds out his free hand for a fist bump while David pulls him away.

Amira laughs and just manages to touch their knuckles together before David yanks on his arm, making Matteo stumble around to turn towards him. David laughs watching him almost trip over his own feet and then squawks with outrage when Matteo reaches his free hand up to ruffle David’s (already ruffled) hair.

“Matteo,” he complains, and runs his own fingers through his hair, trying to get it to sit the way it had at the beginning of the night. Matteo doesn’t bother telling him there’s no way he’ll achieve that and just smiles at him when David looks at him with a clear question all over his face.

“Very handsome,” he says just before he presses their smiles together, lingering just long enough for it to turn into an actual kiss.

David preens like a peacock at the compliment, and Matteo’s pretty sure there’s an actual spring in his step when he leads them back inside and right onto the dancefloor. The music’s gotten a little calmer now with the later hour, and the number of people on the dancefloor has thinned considerably. Most people are sitting somewhere on the sidelines, chatting and drinking and pilfering the very last vestiges of the buffet, but there are still a few couples swaying together that David weaves a way around to find them their very own spot. Matteo spots Jonas and Kiki giggling at something on the phone in Kiki’s hands, a bottle of prosecco dangling from Jonas’ hand.

David spins around to face him when he seems satisfied with where he’s led them, slipping his fingers out from between Matteo’s so he can shift the hold he has on his hand. He grabs Matteo’s other hand to place it up on his shoulder and then puts his own hand on Matteo’s back, pulling him so close their hips almost slot together. Matteo’s pretty sure this isn’t strictly speaking appropriate for real ballroom dancing, but it’s not like they’re actually going to waltz.

Matteo lets David move them around to the beat, trying his best to follow the steps David keeps trying to take, but it’s honestly a little bit of a disaster. It doesn’t matter much though, because David’s eyes are glittering with joy and he keeps giggling at Matteo when he stumbles, and honestly, Matteo doesn’t think he’s ever had a better time dancing. When the music shifts into something slower they both tilt forwards, resting their foreheads against each other as they sway gently, their clasped hands curling in to come to rest squished between their chests.

They stay like that for a few more songs, noses occasionally nudging at each other’s faces to ask for kisses. But they’ve been on their feet for hours, and so it doesn’t take very long before they’ve had enough of dancing. The slow swaying feels too soothing for Matteo not to sink into a sort of slumber-adjacent relaxation, and when David gently pulls away, he has to blink himself back into the present.

“Shall we head back to your place?” David suggests.

Matteo nods. “Do you want to say goodbye to anyone? Or… group text?”

“Group text,” David says.

Matteo nods his agreement and they both pat down their pockets to make sure they aren’t forgetting anything. Their hands slip together easily and Matteo bumps their shoulders together just for the way it makes David smile while he types out a short goodbye to their crew’s group chat, letting David lead him outside. It’s late - or early - enough that they decide to walk for a bit and then hop on the first subway of the day, getting as close to Matteo’s flat as they can before walking the rest of the way.

It’s that peculiar time of night that doesn’t seem to belong to the night before or the coming morning, somewhere between late and early where time doesn’t feel real. Walking through the almost-empty streets of Berlin with David feels surreal in a way Matteo doesn’t know how to describe; magical almost, like there’s nothing that can touch them right then and there. David’s hair is messy and flopping into his face, his suit jacket stained with powdered paint, and he’s lost his Abiball Couple 2019 sash hours ago. But he looks like something out of a fairytale, and Matteo can’t stop looking at him out of the corner of his eyes, stealing glances every couple seconds. David keeps catching him at it, but he doesn’t say anything, just keeps smiling and smiling and smiling, like he knows what Matteo’s feeling.

They tiptoe their way into the flatshare, and David presses a hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh when Matteo trips over his own feet trying to untie the laces of his shoes. He reaches out to steady Matteo by grabbing his shoulders, and smoothes his hands over the top of Matteo’s chest when he stands back up, slipping his fingers into his open shirt collar. For a moment he looks a little wistful as he stares at Matteo and then brushes a strand of hair that’s escaped from under his hat out of his eyes.

“I kind of wish you hadn’t given the crown away,” he says quietly.

Matteo raises his eyebrows. “You lost your sash pretty much immediately,” he points out.

“Yeah, but it was just a dumb sash,” David says and sighs. “I’d have liked to see you in a crown, I think. You’d look good.”

There’s a dusting of pink on David’s cheeks that Matteo can just about make out in the greying light of the approaching morning. He watches the way David smiles a little nervously with curiosity.

“Why?” he asks.

David hums and drapes his arms over Matteo’s shoulders, crossing his wrists behind his neck to draw him in closer. Almost close enough to kiss.

“You can’t laugh,” he says.

Matteo shakes his head and closes his eyes, too tired to try and cross them enough to focus on David this close.

“It’s dumb; I know that, okay? But it’s like… I never thought I’d get to have… this. What we have. Someone like you.”

Matteo fights the urge to interrupt him to tell him how much he deserves every single thing he could ever wish for, and just squeezes David where his hands rest on his sides.

“Sometimes it feels a bit like I’m in a fairytale,” David continues. He presses his forehead against Matteo’s and pulls him a little closer by the back of the neck. When he speaks again, it’s barely a whisper. “And you’re my prince.”

Something in Matteo’s chest unravels and he slips his arms around David’s back to pull him into a tight hug.

“You too,” he mumbles into David’s shoulder, trusting that he’ll make the words out somehow. “If I’m a prince, so are you.”

“I don’t think that’s how the line goes,” David says, and Matteo can hear the wide smile in his voice.

“Line?”

“‘If you’re a bird, I’m a bird’?” David explains, only it doesn’t actually explain anything to Matteo.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Matteo says, pulling back a little to look at David.

David looks at him with that fond exasperation that Matteo has gotten so used to, and puts one hand on his jaw, cupping his chin in his palm and stroking the pad of his thumb over Matteo’s lips. Matteo watches him watch his own thumb move on Matteo’s mouth and then purses his lips against it. David smiles and looks back up at him.

“I love you,” he says and smiles, soft and warm.

Matteo smiles back and leans in to kiss him.

“I love you too. And I’ve got this…” he says and then reaches up to pull the hat off his head. The tiara sits a little crooked from being hidden underneath it for so long, but it’s there nevertheless and Matteo grins at the way David’s eyes go wide.

“Amira gave it back,” Matteo says before David can ask. “She says we earned it.”

David reaches up to right the tiara on Matteo’s head and then leans back a little to better look at him. His lips curl up into a smile and gently strokes his thumbs over the side of Matteo’s neck where his hands have come to rest on Matteo’s shoulders.

“It does suit you.”

Matteo lets him look and closes his eyes again when David leans in for a kiss. It’s a sweet, slow kiss, no rush in the way their lips open for their tongues to meet, and Matteo feels it all the way down to his toes. David’s nails scratch lightly over his scalp as his reaches up just a little to curl his fingers in Matteo’s hair, careful not to disturb the tiara.

They kiss until David has to turn away so as to not yawn into Matteo’s mouth, and Matteo huffs a quiet laugh.

“We should get some sleep before tomorrow.”

David hums his agreement, but it takes another moment and another kiss or two before he steps back, giving them space to move to Matteo’s bedroom. Not that Matteo’s any better, perfectly happy to wait for David to take the lead.

The sun’s crept up a little further by the time they step into Matteo’s bedroom, casting everything in a pale, lilac sort of light. For a moment it looks like someone else’s room, but David moves over to the sofa to drape his suit jacket over it seemingly without a thought, and the spell breaks. Anywhere David feels at home, so does Matteo.

They get undressed in silence, and Matteo pulls the curtains shut, leaving the tiara on just to see David smile at him like that again. He only takes it off once they’re in bed, putting it on the bedside table next to his phone. When he turns back to David, he’s still looking at him with that small smile, the look in his eyes speaking of a tender reverence that Matteo is helpless but to return. If he had a kingdom to give, he’d give it for David in a heartbeat.

There’s a little shuffling around until they’re comfortable, curled up on their sides facing each other with their hands touching but not clasped between them. Neither of them are cuddly sleepers, and they tend to wake up on opposite sides of the bed more often than not. But Matteo is sentimental and he likes the thought of David being the last thing he looks at before he sleeps. He knows David does too.

For a few moments, they look at each other, and then David smiles and draws Matteo’s hand to his face, kissing the back of it.

“Good night,” he whispers.

Matteo closes his eyes and nudges his face with the backs of his fingers.

“Good night,” he answers.

There’s the rustle of the sheets as David gets comfortable and a small sigh as he settles. The ensuing quiet has almost dragged Matteo all the way under sleep’s heavy blanket when he hears David whisper again.

“My prince.”

Matteo smiles. Then he sleeps.

 

**The End**


End file.
